Not a Princess (yet or at all)

When you watch Disney movies and wonder about why the female protagonists of a movie are a Princess?

Sure, you have Jasmine from Aladdin and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty who right from the very beginning of the movies that they are identified as such.

But what about the other female characters? They don't start out with such a title, yet they get them in the end. Sometimes they don't even get to become a princess, yet still have a happy ending

Let's have a look at them, shall we?

Belle

The social outcast of her village with a passion for books and adventure was just the daughter and only child of the inventor Maurice. She didn't officially become a princess until she admitted her love for the beast and he became human.

Mulan

While Mulan's father served in the army and made his fortunes based off it, she still isn't classified as a Princess, despite having a nice living facility and access to a good education.

Her husband to be Shang isn't a prince either, but he is the son of a high ranking general, so he is more like a nobleman's son rather than a prince. So, she doesn't become a princess in the end, but at least she has a man that loves her and she back, so it's a happy ending after all.

Tiana

The first African-American to become a Disney Princess as one would observe, did not start out as a princess.

She pretty much started and out in the low-income housing situation of the 1920's and worked as a waitress at two different diners to save up money and buy her own place to turn into a restaurant.

Her life goes sideways after she kisses Prince Naveen (who turned into a frog) thinking that he will become a prince again and reward her, thus making her dream of owning a restaurant come to life. Surprise, she turns into a frog.

She and Prince Naveen get to know each other better, defeat the evil Dr. Facilier and she marries Prince Naveen even if they were still cursed as frogs (which wears off later) and she gets her dream of owning a restaurant fulfilled with the help of her new husband (and a jazz obsessed Alligator who is good with a trumpet).

Cinderella

Many of you are already aware of this story. She had a wicked stepmother and scumbag step-sisters, yet was able to attend the ball, got the prince's attention and lost her glass slipper as the clock struck midnight, causing the Prince to search high and low for the woman he would marry, only to find her in the house of her wicked relatives that locked her in a tower to keep her from her beloved Prince.

Despite all that, Cinderella puts on the glass slipper that proves she is the one that the prince wants to marry and she has a happy ending.

Esmeralda

The gypsy beauty that gained the unhealthy attention of Claude Frollo and the respect from the deformed Quasimodo definitely looks the part of a princess, even in the end when she kisses Phoebus she is still not a princess, but is able to prove to the local townsfolk that people like Quasimodo are just as human as everyone else.

Megara

The mortal woman who was in the employ of Hades to help build his anti-Olympian alliance was supposed to seduce Hercules and prevent him from toppling Hades plan to unleash the titans on Mt. Olympus, of course was not born a princess.

She of course had a change of heart and fell in love with the son of Zeus, even if it meant betraying the lord of the underworld and getting her soul tossed into a depressing well of the dead, only to later be saved by Hercules who almost died saving her.

Despite the fact that Hercules is the son of Zeus and he could be considered a prince and later king, he refuses his place among the gods for the sake of Megara, so she still is not princess, but at least she is with a man who would not betray her for another.